The BeiDou satellite navigation system, China’s answer to GPS, cemented its leading position in the Chinese market last year, as its economic footprint grew more than 7 per cent and it expanded its compatibility to support a broader range of devices.
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The home-grown system – named after the seven bright northern stars used for navigation in ancient China – drove a total of 575.8 billion yuan (US$79.9 billion) of economic output in 2024, up 7.39 per cent year on year, according to data published on Sunday by the GNSS and LBS Association of China, a semi-official industry body.
BeiDou is now compatible with 288 million smartphones – mostly produced by domestic brands like Huawei and Xiaomi – in China, and is used to track locations more than 1 trillion times every day, the association said.
China’s leading navigation apps – Baidu Maps and Amap – said they used BeiDou to guide users on journeys of a combined 4 billion kilometres per day.
More than 30 years since its first satellites were launched, BeiDou’s role continues to grow in its home market as China pushes forward with a strategy of technological self-reliance, aiming to reduce its dependence on Western-made systems.
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Beijing has poured investment into domestic technologies amid fears the country could be cut off from US services like GPS during a period of heightened geopolitical tensions, but China’s vast market is also turning BeiDou into a viable business.
To expand its reach in China’s consumer market, BeiDou is expanding its compatibility from smartphones and in-vehicle satellite navigation systems to wearables, drones, electric bikes and even robots, the state-run news agency Xinhua reported.